Munich, Feb 18 (CTK) – Europe must expect further “fake news” from Russia with the aim to undermine trust in NATO, Czech General Petr Pavel, who heads NATO’s military committee, said in an interview with the Reuters news agency at a security conference in Munich yesterday.
He reminded of the fabricated report about German soldiers raping a 15-year-old girl in a Lithuanian town close to German army barracks last week.
Speculations emerged saying that Moscow was behind the false accusation. Russia has not commented on it yet.
“It is clearly fake news and I believe we should expect more of this,” Pavel told Reuters after his talks with the German and Lithuanian defence ministers.
Pavel said Russia was “not pleased” by the deployment of NATO troops closer to its border.
“It will likely use legal means, such as propaganda, and they will try to influence public opinion against the deployments,” he said. “But we will be transparent and consistent,” he added.
“Those are no naive games, this is an evil intention with the aim to provoke some tension, uncertainty and fear among people,” Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said yesterday, commenting on the fabricated news.
This has been completely malevolent and false manipulation since the beginning, he added.
European intelligence agencies have said Moscow is also seeking to destabilise governments and influence elections with cyber attacks and fake news.
Pavel also told Reuters that NATO has ways, known in military parlance as strategic communication, to counter Russian disinformation and he did not expect Moscow to be able to generate popular protests against the deployments.
Pavel said contact between NATO’s top commanders and their Russian counterparts could restart in the next few weeks with a telephone call with the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, which might lead to a face-to-face meeting.
U.S. General Joseph Dunford met Gerasimov in Azerbaijan this week.
hol/mr
